CJEU rules on out-of-print books in France

On 16 November the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) gave its Judgement in Case C-301/15, a case focusing on the digital reproduction of out-of-print books, in which it was decided that authors have the exclusive right to authorise or prohibit the reproduction and communication to the public of their works. In a press release from the Court it was stated that:

“The Court declares, in this respect, that the right of the author to put an end to the future exploitation of his work in a digital format must be capable of being exercised without having to depend on the concurrent agreement of persons other than those to whom the author had given prior authorisation to proceed with such a digital exploitation and, thus, on the agreement of the publisher holding only the rights of exploitation of that work in a printed format. Moreover, the author of a work must be able to put an end to the exercise of rights of exploitation of that work in digital format without having to submit beforehand to any additional formalities.”

In light of this authors organisations and collecting societies in France will be taking measures to ensure that they are compliant with this judgement, more to follow.